NEW WEBSITE: www.ephesians-511.net JANUARY 2007
YOGA
INTRODUCTION
In the first two issues [December 2006] of The Catholic Times, Chennai, I have analysed the New Age Movement which Pope John Paul II saw as “one of the greatest threats to Christianity in the third millennium”. In this series of articles, specially re-written for The Catholic Times, I will try to explain, as simply and briefly as possible, the various “New Age” practices mentioned in the February 3, 2003 'Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life, a Christian Reflection on the New Age'. The purpose is to create awareness among Catholics of these “New Age” dangers, so that they will take every precaution to avoid them. Every such article carried in this newspaper has been carried in other Catholic magazines whose editors are priests, or who have highly-respected lay ministries. In this issue we look at YOGA.
A Christian must first understand that we are at all times engaged in spiritual warfare, and that Satan uses new means to deceive according to the times. In today’s fast-paced stressful, materialistic, consumeristic world, there is a deep spiritual thirst and a need to find ways to de-stress. New Age gurus offer mind-exercises, meditations, mantra chanting; and YOGA.
MAY YOGA BE PRACTISED BY CHRISTIANS? The answer, short and simple, is: “NO”.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS “CHRISTIAN” YOGA? Again, the answer is an emphatic “NO”.
There are good people who try to “Christianize” everything. They say that anything that is non-Christian can be “brought under the Lordship of Jesus”. I agree with them till that point. Everything can, and must, be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. But, they then take a step further, and insist that such things can be used by Christians. This is where they go wrong. Practices which are intrinsically pagan cannot be used by Christians. Especially when the philosophies behind these practices are diametrically opposed to the revelation of the Bible, which is the living Word of God.
May Christians practise pranayama or yogic breathing exercises? What about the asanas - the postures or physical exercises of yoga? May Christians practise them? To that question, my answer is “yes”, but with some qualifications:
Deep breathing is to be encouraged. The increased intake of oxygen lowers the levels of carbon-di-oxide in the blood, and is good for metabolism, and therefore for health. Good posture and physical exercise facilitate improved breathing and blood circulation, and tone up the muscles. So, then, a Christian may do yoga? I never said that. A Christian may do the breathing and the exercises, but does not need to call it “yoga”. Call it simply proper breathing, and fitness exercising.
The reason is, that when we say we are doing ‘yoga’, there are wider implications. If we closely question those who are teaching us yoga, even if they are Catholic lay persons or priests, we are 100% certain to find that, along with their faith in yoga, they have accepted other beliefs, philosophies and practices which are not compatible with the Catholic faith. We will find that they have compromised in other areas of Biblical truth. This has always been my personal experience.
TWO DOCUMENTS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The system of yoga is not simply a group of physical exercises. It is an eight-staged process that starts at the physical level [asanas], moves through the mental level [meditation techniques], and finishes at the SPIRITUAL level [self-realization]. Any treatment or practice that concerns not just the human body but also the human mind and one’s spirit or soul, is to be examined very carefully. If yoga were NOT such a system, NOT falling in this category, why would it be mentioned in not one but TWO Vatican Documents? One was on meditation systems, the other was on New Age spiritual dangers.
The first is the ‘Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation ’, October 15, 1989*.
Fr. John Bertolucci in Is Yoga Any Good? in NEW COVENANT magazine, October 1991 says that this “letter issued two years ago by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith specifically addresses some aspects of Christian meditation.
I’ve found nothing of use- and a great deal of potential spiritual harm- in the technique of yoga. Anyone who has yielded his life to Jesus Christ and is in an intimate relationship with him through the Holy Spirit has no need for techniques rooted in non-Christian religions.” ‘Genuine Christian mysticism has nothing to do with technique. It is always a gift of God’’ [n 23].
The Document expresses grave apprehensions about “forms of meditation associated with Eastern religions and their particular methods of prayer… The expression ‘Eastern methods’ is used to refer to methods which are inspired by Hinduism or Buddhism such as Zen, Transcendental Meditation or Yoga.” [n 2] *signed by the present Pope Benedict XVI
The second is “Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life - A Christian reflection on the ‘New Age’ ", February 3, 2003.
It says, “Some of the traditions that flow into New Age are: ancient Egyptian occult practices,… Yoga and so on.” [n 2.1]
It states that for New Agers “there is a need to experience the salvation hidden within themselves (self-salvation) by mastering psycho-physical techniques which lead to definitive enlightenment. …Yoga, Zen, Transcendental Meditation and tantric exercises lead to an experience of self-fulfilment or enlightenment.” [n 2.3.4.1]
About the first Document, the Catholic news agency UCAN reported on February 12, 1990, “Father Lucio da Veiga Coutinho, deputy secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, is former editor of the Indian Catholic weekly The New Leader. A member of the UCA News Board of Directors, Father Coutinho wrote the following commentary which appears in the Feb. 10 issue of ASIA FOCUS: The Times of India, a prestigious daily, recently commented that ‘the Vatican has issued a lengthy encyclical virtually excommunicating yoga.’
Associated Press, an American news agency, interpreted the document more objectively. Urging Catholics to distinguish between spiritual form and substance, the Vatican has warned against substituting Eastern methods of meditation such as Zen, Transcendental Meditation and Yoga for Christian prayer, the agency reported…”
WHAT IS YOGA?
Yoga is an ‘Eastern’ or ‘oriental’ meditation system, like Transcendental Meditation [T.M.], Vipassana, and Zen. It is based on the philosophy of “monism”, or “all is one”: Creator and creation are one. There is no distinction. This is the opposite of what the Bible teaches. It aims for a union [=yoga, yoking] with the “divine” in which there is the loss of individual identity.
Ignorant and innocent people start with the basic breathing and body exercises, and when they find themselves in better mental and physical shape- which is but a natural consequence- they explore further and assimilate some of its ancient pre-Christian philosophies, going beyond the physiological and psychological to the spiritual realm. In yoga, everything has a background, a meaning, a purpose. No propagator of yoga, non-Christian or Catholic, has ever been able to deny them.
Or to successfully disassociate from them either in theory or in practice:
“Breathing” is prana-yama- not a moving of atmospheric air, but of prana, the esoteric ‘life force’ or ‘vital’ energy which the second Document elaborates on. The padma-asana or lotus posture is to facilitate the psychic [which Christians can boldly substitute with “occult”] kundalini power or female shakti energy to move upwards from its ‘location’ in the chakra at the base of the spine, through five other supposed chakras, to unite in cosmic orgasm with the energy of a male deity in the crown chakra leading to enlightenment, oneness with the Brahman. Then, the realized yogi can claim aham brahmasmi or
‘I am Brahman’, and look at another and proclaim tat vam asi or ‘Thou art that.’ He has realized that we are all one, divine.
WHAT ABOUT HATHA YOGA?
Aren’t they harmless physical exercises? NO. They aren’t. Given its deep religious background, Hatha yoga must not be understood as a mere harmless physical training as is often claimed. The foremost writing of this school, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika [1,2] clearly states that it has to be taught only in order to reach the Raja yoga level which is “the integration of mind in a state where the subject-object duality does not exist” [4,77], in other words, only for merging the self with the impersonal Absolute, which is monism. The attention given to the body in the asanas has a single purpose with a spiritual goal: for getting total control over the mind and thus liberating itself, uniting one’s individual consciousness to the ‘cosmic consciousness’. The steps to be followed to attain liberation are similar to the Ashtanga [eight-stage] yoga of Patanjali.
We have seen that yoga is meditation- a key element in any Eastern path towards liberation. It is also SALVATION BY WORKS [self-salvation] which the Bible says is impossible. Further, the yoga aspirant has to eventually believe in the theories of karma and reincarnation. The goal of the ancients was to find a solution to samsara, the eternal cycle of birth-death-rebirth, which they believed operated as a consequence of the Law of Karma (repaying the debts of one’s actions in past lives through successive purgative reincarnations). Believing that the answer to this problem could be provided by man himself, they sought Mukti or Moksha, liberation, and in the search for this common goal, many different forms of yoga or margas (paths) evolved: kundalini / laya / gnana / karma / mantra / bhakti, and raja yoga.
CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ COMMISSIONS SPEAK
In 2003 and 2004, Australian Broadcasting, New York Times, Times of India, etc. reported about the Croatian government being forced to abandon the introduction of yoga in schools “after the Roman Catholic Church accused it of trying to sneak Hinduism into schools.” The Croatian Council of Bishops “slammed such physical exercises as heretical.” “Hindu religious practice will be brought into the schools under the guise of exercises”, the Bishops said.
Again, between 1997 and 2004, there were several reports on the dangers of yoga and Zen from the Korean Bishops' Committee for the Doctrine of the Faith which issued two documents on the “new spirituality movements.”
They were greatly concerned about, “the increasing popularity of methods such as yoga, Zen and ‘ki’ (‘chi’) energy training among Koreans, Catholics included, who say these techniques help them achieve soundness of body and mind. The Korean bishops have warned Catholics about such new spirituality movements. According to the bishops, such movements are in serious conflict with ‘the essence of Christianity’ on matters such as the understanding of God, Christology and ecclesiology. The committee noted that, since the 1970s, meditation, yoga, Zen, Ki-gong and breathing techniques have been widely practiced among Koreans, with the danger for Catholics of practicing them as religions or objects of faith.”
Under the caption ‘Non-Christian Meditation’ in ‘A Call to Vigilance- Pastoral Instruction on the New Age ’, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera [on 7th January 1996, six months after his appointment as Archbishop of Mexico] has said:
31. Another phenomenon that is especially disconcerting to the Catholic faithful is the inexplicable enthusiasm with which certain priests, religious and people dedicated to teaching the faith have embraced techniques of non-Christian meditation.
32. Frequently imported from the East, forms of asceticism historically far removed from Christian spirituality are practiced in retreats, spiritual exercises, workshops, liturgical celebrations and children’s catechism courses. These practices were unquestionably born as spiritual disciplines or religious acts within traditional religions as in the case of Zen, tai chi, and the many forms of yoga… At times an attempt is made to “Christianize” these forms, as occurred for example with “centering prayer” and “focusing”, but the result is always a hybrid form with slight [= little] Gospel basis.
33. However much proponents insist that these techniques are valuable merely as methods, and imply no teaching contrary to Christianity, the techniques in themselves always involve serious drawbacks for a Christian:
a) In their own context, the postures and exercises are designed for their specific religious purpose. They are, in themselves, steps for guiding the user towards an impersonal absolute. Even when they are carried out within a Christian atmosphere, the intrinsic meaning of these gestures remains intact.
b) Non-Christian forms of meditation are, in reality, practices of deep concentration, not prayer. Through relaxation exercises and the repetition of a “mantra” (sacred word)*, one strives to submerge himself in the depth of his own “I” in search of the nameless absolute. *The mantra can be maranatha, OM, etc.
Christian meditation is essentially different inasmuch as it consists in openness to the transcendent and a relationship with someone who addresses us in a personal, loving dialogue.
c) These techniques normally require the one who practices them to turn off the world of his senses, imagination, and reason to lose himself in the silence of nothingness. At times the intent is to achieve an altered state of consciousness that temporarily deprives the subject of the full use of his freedom…